12 | PROTECTING STATELESS PERSONS FROM ARBITRARY DETENTION IN BULGARIA the very purpose of the 1954 Convention. The reservations were to: • • • • • • • • • Article 7, paragraph 2 (exemption from reciprocity), Article 21 (housing), Article 23 (public relief), Article 24, paragraph 1 (b) (social security), Article 24, paragraph 2 (right to compensation for the death of a stateless person resulting from employment injury or from occupational disease), Article 24, Paragraph 3 (extension to stateless persons of the benefits of agreements concluded between the contracting states), Article 27 (identity papers), Article 28 (travel documents), and Article 31 (Expulsion).22 Although Bulgaria formally acceded to the 1954 Convention in 2012, it has not yet adopted implementing national legislation that would make the application of the Convention operational. In the next section (Section 2.2.), dedicated on national laws and jurisprudence, we will look at the national case law in this relation and the draft transposition law that is currently pending before the Bulgarian parliament. The Republic of Bulgaria is a member state of the EU and as such is bound by the European Charter of Fundamental Rights. Furthermore, the EU Return Directive – Directive 2008/115/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 on common standards and procedures in member states for returning illegally staying third-country nationals - is fully applicable in Bulgaria. Its transposition in national law will be examined in Section 2.2.1. below. It is noteworthy that Bulgaria signed the 1997 European Convention on Nationality (ECN) as early as on 15 January 1998.23 The ECN is designed to make acquisition of a new nationality and recovery of a former one easier, to ensure that nationality is lost only for good reason and cannot be arbitrarily withdrawn, to guarantee that the procedures governing applications for nationality are just, fair and open to appeal, and to protect persons from statelessness. 2.2 NATIONAL LAWS, POLICIES AND JURISPRUDENCE PERTAINING TO STATLESSNESS AND DETENTION This section will provide information on Bulgarian laws, policies and jurisprudence with regard to the following three main issues: 1. 2. Transposition and implementation of the 1954 Statelessness Convention; Return and removal of illegally residing migrants including the issue of the destination country; and 3. Immigration detention 2.2.1. Transposition and implementation of the 1954 Statelessness Convention As noted above, although Bulgaria formally acceded to the 1954 Convention in 2012, it has not yet adopted implementing national legislation that would make the application of the Convention operational. In its national law there is no definition of a ‘stateless person’. However, the 1954 Convention definition of a ‘stateless person’ is part of customary international law24 and UNHCR25 has authoritatively interpreted it as requiring a careful analysis of “fact and law”, as opposed to a purely formalistic approach. In the absence of transposition of the 1954 Convention, however, there is still national case law that refers directly to the Convention. In Judgment No.53 of 21 April 2015 relating to case No. 101/2015, the Administrative Court of Dobrich allowed an appeal against a refusal to recognise the status of a stateless person. The refusal was issued on the ground that no decision-making body had been set in national law to decide on such applications, as well as no procedure for determining statelessness had been elaborated in national legislation. The Court noted that the lack of national provisions transposing the 1954 Convention was “not a ground to deprive stateless persons of their rights”. The Court invoked Article 25 (‘Administrative Assistance’) of the 1954 Convention and ruled that the state shall assist the stateless person and shall not create obstacles for or discriminate against them. The Court found that it is the Director of the Migration Directorate that normally decides on applications for residence permits by immigrants in Bulgaria. Therefore, it was the competent body relevant to the case. The Court further concluded that the refusal contradicted the purpose of the 1954 Convention, namely, to guarantee the fundamental human rights of stateless persons.26 In similar cases national courts27 have further invoked Article 46, paragraph 2 of the Law on Normative Acts, which stipulates: When a normative act is incomplete, the cases that are not regulated by it are regulated by the norms that apply to similar cases, if that meets the purpose of the act. If such norms are missing, the matters are regulated according to the fundamental principles of the law of the Republic of Bulgaria.” 28 In its judgment of 18 March 2014 relating to case No.327/2014, the SCAC stated that the fundamental principles of the law of the Republic of Bulgaria are found in the Constitution of the Republic and in the international treaties to which Bulgaria is a party. The court recalled that according to Article 5(4) of the Bulgarian Constitution, international treaties that have